Burning Man’s annual gathering in the Nevada desert has never been easy on people’s lungs. The fine dust and sand coats every surface and enters every crevice, often causing respiratory symptoms attendees refer to as “playa lung.” But COVID was also present on the playa this year, and just how much is just becoming clear now, as the cleanup begins.
Many of those dusty revelers who returned over the past week from the festival, which officially ended on Labor Day, are discovering their sore throats and slight coughs are not just the the normal symptoms after a particularly hot and dusty week of partying — it is also COVID in many cases.
“The party is over, and now the cleanup has begun,” said Dan Abbott, a former Bay Area resident and long-time Burning Man participant, “and people are getting sick.”
